BY TYLER O'NEIL | PL
Media
Frederick Douglass photograph, circa 1879.
Public domain in the U.S. National Archives.
Protests over the horrific police killing of
George Floyd infamously devolved into riots and looting that destroyed black
lives, black
livelihoods, and even black
monuments. The iconoclastic vandals who began by toppling Confederate
monuments moved on to defacing statues of America’s Founders, Indian
nationalists like Mahatma Gandhi, and even a monument to the 54th Massachusetts
regiment, the first black volunteers to fight for the Union in the Civil War.
Yet one of the most grotesque acts of vandalism came on Sunday when vandals
toppled a statue of former slave Frederick Douglass in Rochester, N.Y.
Vandals somehow removed the Douglass statue
from its base and dropped it near the Genessee River gorge, the
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported. Located in
Maplewood Park, the statue “had been placed over the fence to the gorge and was
leaning against the fence” on the side of the river, Rochester police said in a
statement. Authorities found the statue about 50 feet from its pedestal.
The vandals dislodged the statue exactly 168
years after Douglass delivered one of his most important speeches. He delivered
“What
to the Slave is the Fourth of July” on July 5, 1852, speaking to the
Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society at Corinthian Hall in Rochester. Douglass, who
escaped slavery in 1838 and settled in Rochester, lamented the horrific
institution and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The black community in
Rochester celebrated American independence on July 5, rather than July 4.
“Your high independence only reveals the
immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day,
rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You
may rejoice, I must mourn,” Douglass said. Yet he praised the Founders and
insisted that the Constitution’s principles and purposes are “entirely hostile
to the existence of slavery,” a marked departure from the mindset of the anti-American
“1619 Project.”
“Now, take the Constitution according to its
plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in
it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes,
entirely hostile to the existence of slavery,” Douglass wrote. He expressed
hope — even on the brink of the Civil War — that “the doom of slavery is
certain.”
Americans have taken to reading Douglass’
historic speech on the Fourth of July, and his descendants did so this year. It
is heinous to see the great man’s statue dislodged on the very anniversary of
his most famous speech.
According to Carvin Eison, a leader of the
project that brought statues of Douglass to the city, this particular statue
suffered damage too extensive to be repaired. The base and the lower part of
the statue suffered damage, as did the finger on the statue’s left hand. Eison
promised, however, that another statue will take its place.
Even the statue’s location was historically
significant. Maplewood Park includes Kelsey’s Landing, where Douglass, Harriet
Tubman, and others helped slaves escape to freedom via the Underground
Railroad.
Douglass is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in
Rochester. After his death, he became the first black American to be
commemorated with a statue — a monument that now resides at Frederick Douglass
Memorial Plaza. In 2018, Eison led the effort to place thirteen additional
Douglass statues — including the one at Maplewood Park — around the city, in
remembrance of his 200th birthday.
“It’s particularly painful that it happened
at this time,” Eison told the Democrat and Chronicle. In comments
to WROC. he
wondered whether the toppling of Douglass’ statue is a form of “retaliation”
for the toppling of Confederate monuments. “Is this some type of retaliation
because of the national fever over confederate monuments right now? Very
disappointing, it’s beyond disappointing,” he said.
While most cases of vandalism have involved
graffiti leaving clues as to the intention of the vandals — the 54th
Massachusetts monument was spray-painted with Black Lives Matter and George
Floyd-themed graffiti, for example — Rochester police said they did not find
any graffiti on the statue or by its base. Given recent trends, it seems
possible that either Black Lives Matter/antifa vandals mistakenly dislodged the
statue or that white nationalists targeted the monument to this black American
giant.
In 2017, my alma mater, Hillsdale College,
erected a statue honoring
Frederick Douglass. On January 21, 1863 (in the middle of the Civil War),
the former slave spoke at Hillsdale in a speech entitled “Popular Error and
Unpopular Truth.” He honored Hillsdale because the college opposed slavery.
Hillsdale College’s 1844 charter committed the institution to accept students
“without regard to race, sex, or national origin.”
The Douglass statue stands in a circle around
Hillsdale’s monument to the Union soldiers who fought to hold America together
and to free the slaves. The circle also includes a statue of Abraham Lincoln.
“Douglass came here to remind us what a
college is. It’s not just a proclamation of the evil of slavery. It’s a
proclamation on the nature of man—of all of us, of what we can do, of what
we’re made for,” Hillsdale President Larry P. Arnn said at the unveiling of the
Douglass statue.
While Confederate statues are rightly
controversial, vandals have also targeted statues of America’s Founders,
including writing “1619” on a toppled statue of President George Washington.
This reference to The New York Times‘s “1619 Project” shines light
on the iconoclasm. The project claims that America’s true founding came with
the arrival of slavery in 1619, not the Declaration of Independence in 1776. If
so, America is irredeemably racist and it makes sense to throw out the entire
project. Yet Douglass himself shows that this is not true — his comments about
the Constitution stand as a powerful rebuke to the “1619 Project.”
Even so, some on the left have shamefully joined
the bandwagon, refusing to condemn the vandalism of statues commemorating
America’s heroes and even suggesting that Mount Rushmore represents oppression or
“white
supremacy.”
The vandalism of Frederick Douglass’ statue
should serve as a wake-up call. The vandalism has not stopped with Confederate
monuments. Trump has rightly responded with force, ordering the prosecution of
vandals when possible. The Department of Justice has arrested
more than 100 people for rioting and destruction. Left-leaning
officials may have comforted themselves with the idea that rioters are only
targeting Confederate monuments, but this has not been true for some time.
State and local officials need to follow Trump’s example and crack down on the
vandalism.
Americans on both sides should be incensed at
this attack on Douglass, a former slave, masterful orator, and patriotic
American. The vandalism needs to end.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law
Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
